No Bromance: Merkel Gets Smaller Platform on US Visit

The confirmation comes ahead of a visit to the White House by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is expected to push Trump not to abandon the Iran nuclear deal nor hit Europe with new USA tariffs.

Berlin hopes to convince Trump to reconsider his claim that America is being treated unfairly by pointing out that tariffs on all cars - if pickup trucks and SUVs are included - are nearly identical in Europe and the United States.

The economic council of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) cautioned that the upcoming meeting between Merkel and Trump would set the trajectory for future trade relations between the US and Europe.

"There is a special responsibility that all U.S. officials have to reject partisan politics when they take government service jobs", he said.

Grenell, who has been strongly critical of the nuclear agreement, is a Republican foreign policy writer and commentator who was an aide to Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, when Bolton was former Republican President George W. Bush's ambassador to the United Nations.

Yet her trip may prove more productive.

Her relationship with Barack Obama was particularly close, officials from that administration have said, so much so that he was a powerful voice encouraging her to run for a fourth term. He said she looked like Justin Bieber in another tweet.

Merkel's aides sought to play down expectations that her US visit will result in a breakthrough on the trade issue.

Trump has threatened to wreck the 2015 accord, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions, by reimposing USA penalties next month unless the three European allies agree to fix its "flaws". With Mr Trump yet to decide whether to make the European Union's present temporary exemption from tariffs on imported metals permanent before it expires on May 1, Mrs Merkel can expect the EU's allegedly unfair...

Trump has called the agreement, which Germany helped negotiate, "insane" and the "worst deal ever", demanding that its "disastrous flaws" be fixed.

Germany's BDI industry association is banking on an agreement with Trump.

The Berliner Zeitung daily looked ahead to Merkel's tough diplomatic mission just after Macron's charm offensive, saying that "she can hardly follow Macron's best-buddy act, but she does need a strategy".

The media remind us that during the first meeting with the German Chancellor in March 2017 trump refused to shake her hand.

"From today's perspective, we must assume that the tariffs will come on May 1", said a German government source.

It is unclear how Mike Pompeo s confirmation as Secretary of State will tilt the debate.

He said add-ons could include issues such as Iran's ballistic missile programme and its role in the region.

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